Who We Are
The Centre for Law and Transformative Change (CLTC) is registered as a non-profit organisation in Brussels, Belgium and as a company limited by guarantee in the United Kingdom. We are a collective of international lawyers and justice development experts with inter-disciplinary skills passionately committed to using law and justice systems as a catalyst for transformative social change.
We do this by providing legal, technical, and programmatic support to local civil society groups, national and international institutions, lawyers’ networks and associations, public and private sector, justice development investors and philanthropic foundations.
CLTC anchors its work in building agency, harnessing collective intelligence, and amplifying voices from the community to shape justice systems and pathways to justice.
Our Approach
The justice needs of two-thirds of the world’s population is unmet.
The ability of people to have the confidence and trust in justice systems to claim their rights and in their own abilities to resolve disputes requires a paradigm shift in the approach. People’s perspectives and experiences with justice systems is fundamental to building confidence, trust and opening out opportunities to access justice, that is meaningful, and relevant.
Justice is not just about laws, administration of justice, having access to court rooms and lawyers but also requires strategic collaboration with key sectors such as health, education, legal and justice, security, and sustainable livelihoods. It demands an honest, inclusive, accountable, and transparent approach on the transformative power of law, its limitations, possibilities, and potential.
CLTC propels local national and regional groups to lead and boldly trigger transformative change in people’s lives by shaping justice systems that are driven by voices from the community and their lived experiences.
Founders
Miriam Chinnappa
Miriam Chinnappa is the Executive Director and Co-founder of CLTC. She is a lawyer with over 23 years experience providing executive and strategic leadership to rule of law, justice, human rights and humanitarian programs in Asia, Africa and Europe.
Lionel Blackman
Lionel Blackman qualified as a solicitor in 1986 and is a senior partner of a criminal justice law firm. He is the Co-founder of CLTC. He has written several in-depth international trial observation reports, provided technical expertise in various jurisdictions on human rights law and is the founder of Solicitors’ International Human Rights Group.
Team
Kate Flower
Kate Flower is an Australian lawyer with over 15 years’ experience in law and justice sector. Her work is grounded in academic and professional expertise where she uniquely combines data storytelling and narrative research. She has provided leadership and navigated political sensitivities to open Cambodia’s first 3 permanent legal aid office co-located in courthouses. She also spearheaded the roll-out a criminal justice project in Myanmar. More recently she has supported the Australian NSW Government implement a whole-of-government customer service program. This experience has given her a solid foundation that has seen her successfully bring different stakeholders and agendas together to drive people-centred change.
Awak Bior
Awak Bior is a lawyer from the United Kingdom, with over 22 years of experience, including policy and advocacy work for and with civil society in Africa. She is the founder of the initiative Remembering Ones We Lost (ROWL), which memorialises people who lost lives in the South Sudan conflict.
Ram Bhandari
Ram Bhandari is a transitional justice expert and researcher. Ram’s activism began when his father disappeared in 2001 during the conflict in Nepal. Since then he has led the struggle to secure transformative justice for victims and survivors. Ram is one of the foremost advocates for a system of transitional justice where accountability is victim centred.
Our work is anchored in the Theory of Change
If people have greater agency, opportunities, and power to access justice AND law and justice actors are supported to be more widely available, accessible and people responsive THEN justice pathways and outcomes will be transformative and relevant to the lives of people BECAUSE people will have the knowledge, confidence and opportunities to resolve disputes that impact their lives, fairly and equitably.